Mexican Hill
Liberty, Liberty County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Mexican Hill. Here Mexican soldiers captured at San Jacinto were held from August 28, 1836 to April 25, 1837. When all were released the kind treatment accorded them by the owners of the plantation, Judge and Mrs. William Hardin, induced many of them to become citizens of Texas.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After the Texas Revolution's decisive fight at San Jacinto in 1836, Mexican soldiers taken prisoner were held here on this rise from August 1836 until their release in April 1837. According to the marker, the kindness shown them by the plantation's owners, Judge and Mrs. William Hardin, so moved many of the captives that they chose to stay and become citizens of Texas.
Why it matters
It preserves a humane and surprising coda to the Texas Revolution — former enemies becoming neighbors — at the very moment a new republic was deciding who belonged within it.
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Related people
- · Judge William Hardin
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto (1836)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Edward Thomas Branch
Liberty, TX
A Virginia native, Edward Thomas Branch came to Texas in 1835 and settled in Liberty, fighting as a first sergeant at the Battle of San Jacinto the following spring. He went on to a long public career in the young Republic of Texas—congressman, district judge, postmaster—and later served as speaker of the House in the first state legislature after annexation. He married Anne Cleveland Wharton, daughter of statesman William H. Wharton, and helped charter the Liberty Masonic Lodge.
Captain William M. Logan
Liberty, TX
Born in North Carolina in 1802, William M. Logan moved to Liberty in 1832 and, four years later, organized and commanded a company of Texas volunteers at the decisive Battle of San Jacinto. He went on to serve as Liberty County's first sheriff before his death in Houston in 1839. His short life spanned the birth of the Republic of Texas.
James B. Woods
Liberty, TX
Kentucky-born James B. Woods arrived in Mexican Texas in 1830 and became a brilliant lawyer and orator in the Liberty District, elected alcalde (mayor) in 1834. As one of five delegates from Liberty, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos in March 1836 and served that year in the Texas Army. His life ended in tragedy after he killed a man in an election quarrel in 1851, dying soon after amid remorse.
Seven Pines
Liberty, TX
Benjamin Franklin Hardin arrived in the Atascosito District of Mexican Texas in 1826 and became surveyor of the district in 1834. As a member of the Liberty Volunteers he fought at Concepcion, the Siege of Bexar, and the decisive Battle of San Jacinto that won Texas independence, then built a home on this site in 1839. The place, later known as Seven Pines, stayed in the Hardin family for four generations, and in 1858 the legislature created Hardin County in the family's honor.